Burma’s national democratic leader and Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been
put in the notorious Insein Prison to stand trial on new charges by the military authority. This act of
the regime provoked widespread outrages globally.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been unjustly detained already for the last 13 years. Later this month
her current period of detention expires. Even recently the UN Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention said that her current detention violates both international and Burmese local law.
While Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is the most visible of Burma’s prisoners of conscience, there are
more than 2,100 political prisoners remain in jail, in conditions far more brutal than anyone can
expect. Many of these political prisoners are suffering from horrific torture, denial of medical
treatment and refusal of visits from family. They are jailed in remote locations hundreds of miles
away from relatives. Since 1988, at least 138 political prisoners have died in jails.
Elected Shan Member of Parliament Khun Tun Oo was jailed for 93 years in 2005. Last year, 88
generation Student leader Min Ko Naing and Nilar Thein, female student leader are jailed for 65
years each. Comedian Zarganar is serving 35 years imprisonment for organizing relief for the
victims of Cyclone Nargis.
Moreover the military regime has been carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the
Karen, Karenni and Shan peoples in eastern Burma for the last decades. More than 3,000 villages
have been destroyed and a million people driven from their homes into hiding, without food,
medicine or shelter. Rape is used as a weapon of war, forced labour is widespread and the use of
human minesweepers common. It has the highest number of forcibly conscripted child soldiers in
the world.
Since 1992, United Nations Resolutions and Reports have repeatedly expressed grave concern
about these ongoing violations and have called upon the regime to end impunity. Yet, the military
regime has ignored more than 30 U.N. resolutions most of which include a call for an independent
investigation of crimes such as the rapes by the military of ethnic women.
East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta has recently warned that his government will urge the
Internal Criminal Court (ICC)’s Chief Prosecutor to investigate General Than Shwe and other top
Burmese generals who are responsible of killings and other crimes for many years if the regime
does not release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Women’s League of Burma (WLB) welcomes his strong warning statement as a Nobel laureate and
world leader.
P.O Box. 413 G P O Chiang Mai 50000 Thailand [email protected] www.womenofburma.org
The time has come to say enough is enough. It is time for the UN to invoke its Responsibility to
Protect mechanism, to impose an arms embargo on the regime and establish a commission of
inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity in Burma.
We strongly call on the international community to press for the referral of General Than Shwe and
his cronies to prosecute at the ICC for all crimes including vicious attempt to imprison Nobel
Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Contact:
Lway Aye Nang (General Secretary) - 66 89 434 2841
Thin Thin Aung (Presidium Board member) - 66 89 855 4119